Carlos Surinach Commissions

The Carlos Surinach Commissions fund the creation of new works by former winners of the BMI Student Composer Awards for premiere with leading contemporary orchestras, chamber music groups, and classical soloists throughout the nation.

Established in 2003 through a generous bequest from the late, renowned classical composer Carlos Surinach, the Commissions are often awarded in partnership with Concert Artists Guild (CAG), a nonprofit organization founded to discover, nurture, and promote young musicians. The program selects a performer with a proven commitment to contemporary music, who then chooses a former BMI Student Composer Award winner to write the commissioned work.

Past recipients of the Carlos Surinach Commissions include Pulitzer Prize winner Kevin Puts and Carlos Carrillo for the American Composers Orchestra, David Schober for marimba virtuoso Makoto Nakura, and more recently, Gregory Spears for trumpeter Brandon Ridenour, and David Hertzberg for violinist In Mo Yang.

Carlos Surinach (1915-1997) was among the 20th century’s premier composers for the dance. He was also a celebrated composer of colorful orchestral music and a renowned conductor. As a conductor, he held posts at the Barcelona Philharmonic and the Gran Teatro del Liceo, before moving to the United States from his native Spain in 1951. Surinach’s scores have been regularly featured by some of the world’s most renowned dance companies, including Martha Graham and the Joffrey Ballet, and his impressive catalog of orchestral, choral, and chamber music is performed regularly throughout the world.

By invitation only, no applications accepted.